How Bright Are LED Bulbs?

How Much Light Do LED Bulbs Produce?

Modern LED bulbs and LED spotlights produce a good strong light which provide a good alternative to other less efficient technology such as filament or halogen lighting. However this type of LED bulb is new onto the market place and some information is inaccurate. In many cases retailers and manufacturers are giving over exaggerated claims regarding the light output and efficiency of LED lighting. As a rough guide, expect a 3 watt LED spotlight to produce a similar light output as a 25 watt halogen bulb. Many retailers and manufacturers state that a 3 watt LED spot light is equivalent to a 50 watt halogen spot light which is simply not true.

What Are Lumens And How Do They Help Us Choose The Required LED Light?

Lumens are a unit of measurement used to quantify the amount of brightness emitted by a light source. More specifically, Lumens are a measurement of "luminous flux" which is energy within the range of frequencies we perceive as light. For example, a wax candle generates 13 lumens; a 100 watt filament bulb generates 1,200 lumens. The brighter the light source the higher the lumens.

The new type of superbright LED lights available today produce about 100 lumens per watt of power input. Old halogen spotlights and filament bulbs produce about 12 lumens per watt of input power. Now that we know how many lumens each produce, we can see that LEDs are more than eight times as efficient as halogen and filament bulbs. Put another way, LEDs use about 12% of the energy used by halogen and filament bulbs to emit the same amount of light.

We can also calculate that a 50 Watt halogen spotlight produces about 600 lumens. An LED light would need to be about 6 watt in power to produce the equivalent 600 lumens produced by a 50 watt halogen. We can now see clearly that a 3 watt LED spotlight would produce 300 lumens, not 600 lumens, so definitely not equivalent to a 50 watt halogen bulb. When choosing an LED bulb compare how many lumens the new LED bulb produces with how many lumens your old bulb produces.

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